epoch in the reading world of our ancestors. The change is practically illustrated by Sir Walter Scott's lady who, having enjoyed the books of her youth, turned from them in horror in her old age to the moral works of Miss Edgeworth. The new departure was inaugurated by a woman—Miss Burney, with her novel "Evelina." The opposition that women writers of the day had to encounter is illustrated by the fact that Miss Burney was almost forced to burn her first MS. on the representation of her stepmother that authorship for woman was most reprehensible. But from the ashes sprang the inimitable "Evelina," written in stolen moments, in disjointed fragments, copied out in a feigned, upright handwriting, smuggled to the publisher by a young brother, who was disguised for the occasion, and bought outright for the magnificent sum of £20. Of its success, of the generosity of the publisher, and the sudden fame of the young author, it is superfluous to speak here. Miss Fanny Burney had opened up new possibilities to the novelist by the purity of her writing; she had inaugurated the circulating library, such a feature in modern life to-day; she had prepared the ground for Miss Edgeworth, Miss Martineau, Miss Jane
